It’s no secret that four-door cars are much less likely to be preserved than convertibles or two-door sedans, but 1967 Mercury Comet sedans weren’t common even when they were new, so the odds of encountering a well-preserved one with barely 3,000 miles on the odometer — and one featuring a one-year-only Grandé trim option I’d never even heard of — must be practically astronomical. Yet, here’s a rare Comet Caliente Grandé four-door, sporting newish paint but an original interior.
If you’ve heard of any Ford Motor Company product called “Grandé,” it’s most likely the Mustang Grandé, which arrived for 1969 as the luxury-oriented complement to the sporty Mustang Mach 1. However, Lincoln-Mercury had previously applied that name to an interior trim option for the Comet Caliente. As far as I could find, it was offered only in 1967, and while it’s shown in the 1967 Mercury brochure, neither Standard Catalog of American Cars nor Kelly Flory’s American Cars, 1960–1972 mentions it at all. I’d never noticed the brochure listing, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never encountered a Comet with the Grandé package.
The Comet Caliente, first introduced for 1964, was the second-highest Comet trim series. If you know that “Caliente” in Spanish means “Hot,” you might assume it implied some kind of sporty model, but that was the role of the Comet Cyclone. The Caliente was the luxury version, with a plusher interior than the cheaper Comet Capri.
Although it had been quite successful in the early ’60s, the Comet almost dropped off the radar by mid-decade as Lincoln-Mercury struggled to position it. If you’re not a dedicated Mercury fan, you might be struggling to remember, “Was the Comet a Falcon, or a Fairlane?” By 1966, the answer was “Yes” to both questions: Ford Motor Company had consolidated the Falcon and Fairlane platforms, so the Falcon was basically a cut-down Fairlane with a shorter wheelbase and less overhang. There were Comet versions of both: The cheapest Comet 202 and the Comet wagons were essentially Mercury versions of the Falcon, while the more expensive Comet Capri, Caliente, and Cyclone were Mercury versions of the Fairlane. (See this post for more of the technical details.)
The reason for this two-pronged strategy was that even when the Comet had been essentially just a long-tailed Falcon, customers had perceived it as a bigger, more upscale car. (The short-lived 1962–1963 Mercury Meteor intermediate seemed to have flopped because buyers thought it was too close in size and appointments to the Comet.) So, Lincoln-Mercury was trying to position the Comet as an intermediate, but they didn’t want dealers to be caught short without an affordable entry-level compact, hence the cut-down Comet 202.
This was confusing, and Lincoln-Mercury brochures and advertising seemed to be trying to downplay the Comet name on the pricier intermediate-size models. However, the Capri, Caliente, and Cyclone still had Comet badges on the grille.
A Comet Capri/Caliente/Cyclone was 5.5 inches longer overall than a Fairlane, thanks to its different front and rear styling, but the Fairlane “bone structure” was hard to miss. (These were unit body cars, and they shared most of the same structural hardpoints.) A Caliente sedan listed for $118 more than a Fairlane 500 sedan; with a V-8, base price with federal tax was $2,641.
The interior of this car was quite nice for an inexpensive intermediate. I’m a big fan of the ribbed-metal trim — maybe not the best in bright sunlight, but much more appealing than all the molded plastic that took its place just a few years later. The Comet Caliente included the deluxe steering wheel and woodgrain trim on the dashboard and doors.
One regrettable detail about this interior was that while the instrument panel clearly had space for both an oil pressure gauge and an ammeter, there were warning lights in their place. An ammeter had been included in 1966, but it was dropped this year, probably the usual pinching of pennies. The attractive clock in the right-hand bezel was a $15.76 option. With a V-8, you paid $197.45 for Select-Shift Merc-O-Matic, in this case the C4 version.
On the 1967 cars, the heater controls were moved from the left to the right of the steering column. This car has the cheapest $60.05 AM radio.
The Grandé interior option, which listed for $104.90, included knitted nylon cloth inserts in a diamond-stitched pattern, bolstered in vinyl. According to the brochure, it was available in three colors (blue, black, and parchment), and it included a little embossed design on the center bolster. I wonder if Lincoln-Mercury missed a bet by not offering its Twin Comfort split bench seat on this car, or at least fold-down center armrests; both were becoming popular features on bigger cars with upscale luxury aspirations.
That diamond stitching was echoed on the doors, which also got the door pulls in the woodgrain panel. Lincoln-Mercury interior designers must have been very keen on the diamond pattern, which was reused on the 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III and then on the 1970 Mercury Marquis Brougham. As I mentioned above, the woodgrain trim was a Caliente standard feature, not part of the Grandé package, although it does offset the black trim well.
At least in appearance, this was quite a luxurious interior. Consumer Reports complained that “the seats are poor in construction and support,” but they looked good in the showroom. This was the age of the LTD, so a lot of contemporary full-size cars were getting this kind of interior treatment, but applying it to smaller intermediate or compact cars was ahead of the curve.
After looking at the cabin, the poorly finished trunk was a letdown, but I suppose there were limits to what you could expect for $2,700, even in 1967.
Although the Cyclone was available only with V-8 engines, almost one-third of total 1967 Comet production had the standard 200 cid six. The base 289, which cost an extra $105.63, was a decent compromise, offering better pickup without excessive thirst. If you were concerned with resale value, the V-8 was also a wise investment, since it would fetch an extra $150 at trade-in time.
The car pictured here was ordered with power steering, a $95.00 option. (With a six or the 289, the Comet arguably didn’t need power steering, but it was another good investment when it came to residuals.) It doesn’t have power brakes or front discs, which were available but rare. The deluxe wheel covers and whitewall tires added a total of $73.51 to the price tag, bringing the total sticker price to $3,199.26, a relative worth of about $34,800 in 2025 dollars.
Seven or eight years later, a relatively compact, relatively economical, luxuriously furnished car like this Comet Caliente would have gone over very well. In 1967, the Comet’s impact was more like a dull thud. 1967 was a bad year for new car sales, which down considerably from 1966, and the Comet line took it on the chin: Total sales fell from a respectable 170,426 for 1966 to only 81,133 for 1967. The 1967 Caliente sedan sold only 9,153 cars, about half of its 1966 total; the two-door Caliente hardtop accounted for a further 9,966 and the Caliente convertible just 1,539. Since the Grandé was an option package rather than a model, no production figures are available for it.
For 1968, the intermediate line was redesigned and the Comet name was dropped except for the base model, which was now offered only as a two-door hardtop. The Comet Capri became the Montego, while the Comet Caliente became the Montego MX; the Comet Cyclone became simply Cyclone. The Grandé interior package was replaced by a new Brougham interior package for the Montego MX, leaving the Grandé name free for Ford Division to nab it for 1969.
As a four-door sedan with no performance options, this Comet Caliente Grandé sedan is not an enthusiast’s car, and it’s not really an extraordinary one except for the sheer unlikeliness of its survival and condition. According to the Orlando Classic Cars listing, it was repainted in its original burgundy color at some point, but the interior is original. There were only 2,807 miles on the odometer when these pictures were taken, and only 3,041 miles when it went on the block at Mecum Kissimmee 2024, selling for an eye-opening $19,000 — an outstanding price for any four-door domestic car of this era.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1967 Mercury Comet 202 Two-Door Sedan – Cheap Thrills (by Dave Skinner)
Cohort Pic(k) Of The Day: 1967 Mercury Comet Caliente Hardtop – It’s Caliente Season Again (by Rich Baron)
1967 Ford Falcon Sedans: Deeply Un-Hip Survivors That Have Somehow Beaten The Odds (by me)
CC Tech: Ford Falcon, Comet, and Fairlane – How These Unit-Body Fords Were Alike (And Different) (by me)
The 1968 Mercury Montego 4 door sedan was our drivers’ ed car. The course was taught by the high school coach/administrator and a local car dealer donated cars. Three boys squeezed in the back seat, as four of us alternated driving to the adjacent county seats where the coach checked out the offerings at the Top Value Stamps redemption center store. We lived in the only county in Ohio that didn’t have any four lane limited access highways so rural two lane roads and the town streets were our proving grounds.
This is a beauty. My parents owned a 1966 Comet Caliente, black on black, 2 dr hardtop, 289 and automatic. Power steering but no air. It was the first car I drove and my parents sort of gave me the car to use. I loved that car, except the black on black with no air in Ontario, California in the summer. They traded it in on a 1970 Ford F150 pickup 1970.
Pity this quite appealing car was not optioned with the excellent all in dashboard factory air conditioning.
For cars of this era, the lack of an ammeter was no big deal really. Warning lights were better for most folks, even back then, on a regular family car. Sports cars owners were usually much more enthusiasts and monitored things more closely.
Some lights, like Oil, were arguably better than a gauge in most cars.
When I bought my 95 Ford Escort LX wagon 5 speed it did not have a tach. It had the then supposedly despised Upshift Light (one got used to it very quickly) that not only came on in slow speed situations, but also at redline so one knew when to shift. It really made the tach kind of silly really. Now so many cars with automatics come with a tach that I find them really silly. Computer controlled engines wont let one go past redline anyway.
I was trying to remember if I ever saw a 67 Comet sedan in this top trim level, and then I got to the production figures and understand how I might have missed them. Most later Comets I ever saw were either a mid-trim Caliente hardtop or a low-end strippo 202.
These and the similar Fairlane sedans of 1966-67 seem to have all but disappeared.
$19000 being an eye-opening price for a four door car of this era – I assume you mean that’s a very good price for the seller, but it does seem that if it’s what one wants (and it does have plenty going fofr it even though I have zero interest or knowledge of this particular line) it seems a good value. Or enough of one that at least two people thought so, one slightly more than the other. When will an identical one pop up? 🙂 The price seems attractive by itself for a mid 60s V8 car with good looking paint, a perfect interior, and presumably well-sorted mechanicals (or at least not “upgraded” with sometimes dubious modifications) – Speaking from the perspective of one that would conceivably purchase a vintage vehicle to enjoy, drive occcasionally in sunny weather, but not necessarily obsess over to the nth degree or be bound to a particular make/model or even era.
I do wonder (even depending on the actual target market) how much the penny-pinching in some or many instances actually contributed vs hurt sales and profits – I am specifically the type of person that will very much like or be considering a car (or anything really) and then something like two gauges going away for two idiot lights when there is clearly still the space for the gauges there will completely turn me off to the point of taking the entire car (or whatever) from consideration entirely. If it’d always been like that, not an issue, but if removed and it was something I would have wanted (and could have had earlier) it can turn into a fast deal breaker and therefore the few dollar or penny savings quickly turn into an entire lost profit for the manufacturer.
The issue about gauges is overblown in my opinion. I have long felt that warning lights were vastly superior for 99.9% of drivers, as who actually monitors oil pressure , ammeter output or even water temperature and such? A sudden red warning light is vastly more effective for the intended purpose of warning of an abnormal condition. And clearly the buying public felt the same way, as warning lights (rightfully) became the de facto standard.
When my Promaster van overheated on a mountain road due to a cheap plastic tee I had inserted for the domestic water heater breaking my first awareness of that was steam erupting from the hood. I looked down to see my temperature gauge pinned and the warning light on, which was not very visible given the bright sunlight that made it not very bright in the shaded binnacle. Maybe an audible warning: “Your engine is overheating!” The reality is that I was very lucky not to have warped a head.
The issues with gauges has always been one that magazine writers and enthusiasts gripe about, but it’s a red herring in my opinion.
BINGO!
My 98 Stratus EX V6 (complete junker) had a pinhole leak in a heater hose and when it started overheating I did get a “Ping” and the Check Gauges light when on. Usually that sound meant yet another sensor failing but this time it was a lack of coolant.
In the 80s I bought my wife a 74 Mercury Comet with the 250-6. I had used it for something and as I rolled to a stop the OIL light came on…….I stepped on the gas to get it out of the street and the light went off. Hmmm. I pulled over and looked back and on the street was a long line of oil. I checked the dipstick and it was still in the safe zone so I got it back home and replaced the sensor (super easy on the 250).
Idiot lights are just fine for 99% of people.
I just like looking at them 🙂 A gauge paired with a warning light is better for the reason you indicate, but I don’t understand why they don’t ALSO include some sort of warning buzzer or gonger or whatever tied into an existing noisemaker in the car, especially for something crucial as a clearly overheated engine. Sometimes you just sort of zone out but a noise is much harder to miss – and of course should be paired with a button press to silence it and acknowledge it has been noted.
As I said I’m perfectly fine if there is not a gauge present in a vehicle but I don’t like it when there WAS a gauge there and then the next model year on the same vehicle with the same layout (i.e. no change to the vehicle otherwise) it’s gone.
In this era, Ford had something they called “PIP” — I forget what the acronym officially stood for, but in practical terms it mean “profit improvement program” — where they would constantly look for things that could be quietly removed from existing products to trim a little cost. I’ve heard Ford designers talk about it in the Dave Crippen interviews for The Henry Ford in the ’80s. I think that’s likely what happened to the ammeter on the Comet.
My 2007 VW Rabbit made a gong sound when it overheated, may have had a light too, plus a temperature gauge – which alerted me to a failed water pump that caused an overheated engine. It was the only mechanical failure the car ever had in the 15 years I drove it.
I’m not so sure. I have now seen a bunch of recent-ish cases like this where someone gets into a bidding war over what is, in a collector sense, an oddball car, and ends up paying more than normal market value, only to spend the next four or five years desperately trying to flip it for more than or even as much as they paid for it.
For very low-mileage near-original cars like this one, it creates a trap where the car isn’t used because its perceived value is dependent on maintaining its condition and low mileage. So, it becomes like a collectible toy that’s never taken out of its package in hopes that someone else will one day see it as a Valuable Collector’s Item.
I grasp what you’re saying about a casual hobby car, but I think the mileage, condition, and overpayment will likely work against that for this car. If this were a pretty nice car with moderate mileage — say 35,000 miles, still in good shape but not quite so pristine — it would suit that role well, but in that case, it would probably have sold for maybe half what it actually did. This smacks more of something that people are trying to approach as a collector piece even though there isn’t much collector market.
Car on the flipper merry-go-round. In 2021 at 2804 miles via GAA. Orlando Classics has it at 2900 miles and technically two owners now and not one. Kissimme has it at 3041 miles in January 2024. This car is never going to be “driven” so as to add miles as it seems each owner hopes to flip it, and use the low mileage, as the hook for more money than previous sale.
A very rare car indeed. These were quite invisible in their time.
As to the first luxury-trimmed mid size, the ’66 Olds Cutlass Supreme is a very serious contender, although its upholstery wasn’t quite as plush as the “panty cloth” knitted nylon in this Caliente Grande.
Although the Fairlane/Comet restyle for 1968 was quite effective, they still shared key hard points and things like the windshield and doors. But they did widen the C pillar and change the rear door window frame to be a bit shorter, allowing them to remove the little fixed pane at the rear. That allowed the rear window to roll down without interference.
Still, we could wonder what if Ford have introduced a 4-door hardtop for 1968 instead of the 1970 model year for their intermediates? And what if Mercury had decided to imitate Ford, by using the Monterey nameplate for their intermediate line-up instead of Montego just like Ford did with the Fairlane monicker a couple of years before?
And how the 1968 Fairlane/Comet/Montego/Torino fared against Dodge and Plymouth mid-size offerings who also got update styling?
The four-door intermediate hardtop did incredibly poorly for Ford and Lincoln-Mercury. There just wasn’t much market for it.
As for transferring the Monterey name, I think it would have just confused buyers even more, which was not something Mercury needed help with in their compact/intermediate line. They were still selling the full-size Monterey, and I think the sales organization would have gotten nervous about losing it, because Mercury had gotten burned very badly 10 years earlier by a clumsy attempt to move upscale.
With the Fairlane nameplate, it was a different story because the full-size Fairlane had been demoted to a kind of middle-tier position between the Custom and Galaxie, and once that happened, almost no one was buying it; I don’t think the name was tarnished, it was just that Ford buyers tended to either want a cheapskate base model or the fanciest Galaxie/Galaxie 500, and the Fairlane was now neither. So, it didn’t cost Ford much of anything to shift the name to the intermediate, and because its new position was pretty clear, no one was confused for very long.
What an interesting survivor and optioned car. The interior is very inviting looking and for me the prime feature here as the exterior, while in excellent condition, is a little generic 60s car. A very usable classic but hard to know what its future is with those low miles on the odometer.
The diamond seat tufting pattern reminds me of the twin comfort lounge seats in my father’s 1972 Mercury Marquis Brougham.
I was surprised that the Comet 202 2 and 4-door sedans sedans, while sharing the same 116” wheelbase as the other Comet coupes, convertibles and sedans were shorter. When I went to confirm this by checking the sales brochures on oldcarbrochures.com I saw where they listed the overall length of the ’66 Comet 202 as being 195.9” long vs. 203” for the other Comet coupes, convertibles, and sedans. The ’66 brochure also states the Comet 202 only had 15 cubic feet of trunk space vs. 17 cubic feet for the other Comet coupes, convertible, and sedans.
Then things got strange. I looked at the 1967 sales brochure where it listed all of the 1967 Comet coupes, convertible, and sedans (202s, Capris, Calientes, and Cyclones) as being 203.5” long and having 17 cubic feet of trunk space. It appears that the shorter Comet 202s were only offered for 1966 and not 1967, unless they printed a little fib in the 1967 brochure. (Things like that have been known to happen.)
1967 too. Here’s a snippet from that brochure below: